If you check the Minneapolis/Saint Paul phone directory you will find a listing for only one Leonard Catarone. Which, if you happen to be from out of town or particularly dense, may lead you to think that there only is one Leonard Catarone in the Cities. But that, my dear friend or hapless traveler, would be one of the worst mistakes you could ever make.

One Leonard Catarone is a successful local businessman, owning among other things a notable medical supply firm, who has retired to a not-inconsiderable lake home on Sunfish Lake, with big, east-facing windows and a private helipad. And if he’s a little more successful than a business the size of his would suggest, well then Leo will be the first to tell you about the benefits of investing well and holding a diversified portfolio. Along with being a fixture in the business community he is also a noted philanthropist, one of the founding members of the ‘Father Hennepin Society’ which is one of the primary private agencies in charge of providing medical care and job training for the Chicagoan refugees who still live on the outskirts of the Twin Cities. You may also recognize the name from the ‘Maria Catarone Center for Awakened Diseases’ at the United Hospital of Saint Paul, which he had named after his mother. These days however, he mostly leaves the running of his charities to his lovely and vivacious wife Theresa (or “Terry” as she insists everyone call her), so that he has more time for his true passions, his extensive garden and playing with his host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Then there’s the other Leonard Catarone. Leo “The Lion” Catarone is considered by every law-enforcement and corporate security agency existent to be the Don of the Catarone Family and boss of organized crime in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Well, every agency except the Saint Paul Police Department, which to this day firmly denies having ever seen any evidence that this other Leo even exists. It is common knowledge in certain quarters that the “The Lion” is feared and respected by other cities’ organized crime bosses for his strategic position in the smuggling capital of the UCAS and the unshakable iron grip he maintains over his own territory. Such is the power and influence of this man, this one man, that rumor has it that even the other organizations he allows in his city (and it is, most assuredly, his city) come to him to resolve disputes and negotiate deals. The Lion is indeed King of his own urban Jungle, with his paw in for a piece of nearly every bit of illicit business that goes down in this fair city of ours.

So how is it that this one man, with the two very different lives, came to be, and which, if either, is the real Leo Catarone? That’s what we’re going to be exploring in the next few pages…

Except, of course, that she never did get the chance, did she? Coincidence?
-Just Asking

Hey! It was a crazy year and stuff breaks, you know? You want to find that out, you keep flapping your mouth, paison!
-CaveMan